Another Successful Milling and Removal of Permanent Bridge Plug on Electric Wireline  

August 2008

Offshore Norway, Welltec has removed a permanent bridge plug from the tubing in order to allow continued production from the well.

 

In August 2008, at an offshore platform, the Well Miller was used to mill and remove a permanent type of bridge plug. The 3.25” bridge plug was set in the tubing in March 2008 at 4,145 ft. It was decided to attempt to mill out the plug on electric wireline to regain production from the well.

 

After several tests of both bits and milling tools, Welltec had designed a solution to the problem of collapsing a bridge plug in a production well by combining the Well Miller with hydraulically provided weight on bit (WOB). This would make it possible to mill out the retaining rings of the plug thereby collapsing the plug. The milling control unit allows the WOB to be adjusted for each application and also controls the reactive torque, force generated from the milling bit engaging the plug.

 

The offshore operation was successfully completed in three days.

 

The operator was 100% satisfied with the operation and stated that “the success of the record breaking milling operation was made possible by an excellent design effort by Welltec R&D Department in combination with numerous milling tests to optimize the equipment for operation (…) In conclusion, the solution adopted by Welltec to remove the plug has been innovative. The success of the milling operation is quite an achievement and has pushed the limits for what is possible to achieve using electric wireline and tractor technology.”